WWUTT 052 Wisdom Personified (Colossians 1:15-20)

When we talk about growing in knowledge, we're basically talking about the acquiring of information.

Wisdom, then, is the ability to take that knowledge and apply it, or being able to exercise it in a proper way.

The Bible instructs us to get wisdom, but true wisdom comes only from God when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website, www .tt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Starting with a quote from Charles Spurgeon today, No one ever outgrows

Scripture. The book widens and deepens with our years. Amen to that.

I have been taught the Bible from a very young age. My dad taught me how to read the Bible, how to use

Scripture to interpret Scripture. But I fell into a bout of bad teaching in my 20s, my early 20s, somewhere in there.

And I'm thankful for some great men of God who came alongside me and showed me where I was wrong and directed me back on a right path that my dad set me on from the very beginning.

So I had biblical knowledge, but I did not have godly wisdom.

It's like I had the knowledge, but I did not know how to apply it. And it is God that gives us that ability to apply that knowledge in a proper way.

Godly wisdom and true wisdom comes only from God. We're going to be talking about that a little bit today as we look at Colossians 1, verses 15 through 20.

Now remember, something that I mentioned yesterday is that we need the Bible to understand Christ. We know who God is according to what we see in Jesus.

And we know who Jesus is according to what we read about Him in the Scriptures. We have no other way of knowing

Christ except for what is given to us in the Word of God. So this is so important as we open up Colossians 1, 15 by reading that Jesus is the image of the invisible

God. How do we know God? By looking at Christ. And how do we know Christ? By looking at His Word.

So let us come to His Word today, opening in prayer. Our gracious Father, our all -loving

Provider, we thank You for providing us with Your Word. How can we know You? How can we know who

You are? Except for what is written down for us in the Scriptures. This is truly the treasures of all the wisdom and knowledge that we have hidden in Christ Jesus opened up to us in Your Word.

What a wonderful treasure this is. And I pray that we store these things up in our hearts, that they continue to teach us and to guide us, that they become our very thoughts that we're thinking about, helping us take our thoughts captive, making it that much easier for us to take our thoughts captive and submit them to Christ, making it that much easier to pray without ceasing, that with our very thoughts and our words and everything that we do, we are lifting them up as praise unto our

Lord God. So continue to guide us by these things, our Lord, giving us Your Spirit. And we pray and ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Colossians 1, starting in verse 15. Jesus is the image of the invisible

God. Of course, the word there is He, but I hope you know in context. We're talking about Jesus here, the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything

He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

We come back to the beginning here in the passage that we focused on mainly yesterday in Colossians 1 .15,

that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Now, by Paul saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, there's a certain context going on here.

There's a reason why he's chosen those words to describe Jesus first.

Remember I told you when we started this study in the book of Colossians, I mentioned that there was a philosopher who came into Colossae claiming that he had the philosophy.

It's fine if you believe in Jesus. It's fine if you read the prophets and the law and all those things.

But what I've got is the philosophy that unlocks all the secrets of the universe.

That's basically what this philosopher was claiming. Now, we'll talk about this a little bit more when we get into chapter 2, but in verse 8 is where Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Then you'll see a familiar passage in verse 9, for in Him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Well, that sounds pretty familiar, right? It sounds like what we just read in chapter 1, verse 15. Well, that's because the way that this is laid out in the

Greek, when Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy, the word that is there for philosophy can actually more adequately be translated as the philosophy.

Make sure no one takes you captive by the philosophy, philosophios, written in the singular.

And it's because there was likely one teacher who came in with one statement.

I have the philosophy that you need for life. This is how you understand everything in the universe, by listening to what it is that I have to tell you.

So, even though Paul never mentions his name, and even though he never says that it's just one guy presenting this philosophy, that's our understanding according to the

Greek. It was one idea presented by one person that had the potential to woo some

Colossians out of the church. This is one of the things that Epaphras brought to Paul when he came to visit him in Rome, telling him about some of the things that were going on in Colossae.

So, as Paul has this opportunity to preach to the Colossians for the very first time through a letter, but it's still the first time that he's had the chance to minister to the

Colossians in this way, he means for them first to understand that Jesus is the image of the invisible

God. The way that is phrased and the way that is worded, it's basically saying,

Paul is basically saying to the Colossians, Jesus is wisdom personified.

This is not uncommon. It's not unusual for people in a pagan culture to believe in wisdom as being some personified deity.

So, they're in a pagan culture, they're thinking of wisdom being a God. So, they would worship wisdom as though wisdom was a

God. They might even give it a different name, but it would basically be the God of wisdom, okay? So, then when

Paul presents Jesus as the image of the invisible God, he's not just saying that when you look at Jesus, you see

God. He's basically presenting Jesus as wisdom personified. Now, this is not the only place in Scripture that we see this.

This comes up in Proverbs as well. We see wisdom personified in Proverbs 8. Beginning in verse 12,

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the

Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech

I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight. I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.

By me princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

This is wisdom talking here in Proverbs 8. So Solomon, the writer of this section of Proverbs, is personifying wisdom.

And we see as we go on, wisdom talked about as being there with God in the very beginning.

Proverbs 8, verse 22, The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

Ages ago I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills

I was brought forth. So you see here wisdom being talked about as being with God from the beginning of all things.

And so here we have that same sort of thing going on as Paul is presenting Christ to the

Colossians in this way. Colossians 1 .15 He is the image of the invisible

God. He is wisdom personified, the firstborn of all creation. Now talking about Christ being wisdom personified, this isn't the only place that is going to come up.

Of course, it comes up again in chapter 2. But then when Paul says he is the firstborn of creation, we should not think of this in creative terms, like in terms of creation, in terms of physical creation, we should not think of it in that way.

Jesus was not created by God because as it goes on, by him all things were created.

If all things were created by him, then he himself could not also have been created.

Jesus is the son of God. He is submissive to the will of the father, but he has existed for all time, just as the father has existed for all time, just as the

Holy Spirit has existed for all time. We worship one God. This is Deuteronomy 6 .4

Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. So we worship one

God. He's just one God, but he's three persons. And that is without question in Scripture.

Trinity is an essential doctrine. And as I mentioned to you earlier, I think this was last week when I talked about this, we were talking about being

Trinitarian Christians. Salvation is given by the father. It is acquired through the son.

It is experienced in the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a Trinitarian work.

So we are Trinitarian Christians. We're not just worshipers of Christ. We worship the father through Christ, which we experience in the

Holy Spirit. Okay, so this is all the work of God, the Godhead, father, son, and Holy Spirit.

We are Trinitarian Christians. All parts of God, all persons of God have existed for all time.

When we get to this idea that Jesus was created by the father, this is an old heresy that is referred to as Arianism.

Arianism comes from Arius, who was a false teacher from the time of the Council of Nicaea.

Legend has it that in 325 A .D. at the Council of Nicaea, Arius sang a song about Jesus being created by the father.

There was a man that got up at the council. He crossed the room and he socked Arius in the face.

That man was Saint Nicholas. Yes, the same guy who would mythologically become

Santa Claus. All right. Don't get me started on Santa Claus. You should not be telling your kids that Santa Claus is real, okay?

So anyway, that's who Arius is. He has an old history in church tradition, and he is the father of what is referred to as the

Arian heresy. Generally, whenever we hear about Jesus being created or caused by God the father, that gets referred to as the

Arian heresy. God did not create Jesus. Jesus has been with God from the very beginning.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By him all things were created. So if by Christ everything was created, he himself could not also have been created.

In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

So when we're talking about the Bible being all about Christ, Old Testament and New, everything points to Christ.

Paul is kind of putting that together here in Colossians 1 .16, where he says that all things were created through him and all things were created for him.

You just see the wonderful picture of Christ that Paul is setting up here. He's everything. He is everything.

So when he gets to the statement that he might be preeminent, he's been setting the stage for understanding that Jesus is everything.

And above him, there is nothing else. He is top. There is nothing to gain. There is nothing to get in Christ.

We are fully satisfied, and we need nothing else. Now, don't hear me saying that, thinking, okay, well,

I don't need to eat anymore, or I don't need to do this, that, or the other anymore. Christian science falls victim to this.

They will think that it is biblically wrong to go to a doctor or receive any kind of medication for some sort of a problem or ailment because it's not trusting

God. And if we truly have faith and we truly trust in God, then we just need to pray hard enough and he'll heal us from our sickness.

Folks, that's not wisdom. That is not exercising knowledge in a proper way.

That is not at all what the Bible says, that we need to stay away from Tylenol, okay? So Christian science tends to take that to a level that it was never meant to be taken.

When we understand Christ as being everything, then we know that he's going to provide us with everything.

In Christ, we are given everything that we need for life, and we need nothing else. So Jesus, in Matthew 6, talking about, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Who can add a single hour to their day by being anxious about anything? If we know that Christ is everything, if we are hidden with Christ in God, as it talks about in Colossians 3, we'll get to that later, if we have been hidden with Christ in God, then we know that he has the victory.

We know that our future is with him, that death does not have the last laugh, but that Jesus, who conquered the grave, has given us eternal life, and we will live forever with him, all who are in Christ Jesus.

If we know the good news of that gospel message, then we have nothing to be anxious about.

There is nothing to worry about in this lifetime, because we are fully satisfied in our

Savior, who created all things, all things created through him and for him.

For those of you Bible nerds out there, as I'm saying that, you're probably hearing John 1, right?

In the beginning was the Word, capital W, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him, in Christ, was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was

John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him.

Yet, the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We are born again, not by our will, understand that? We are not born again because of any decision that we made on our own, in and of ourselves.

We made no decision. We could not make any sort of decision. God made it for us. He chose us when we could not choose him.

It is by the will of God that we are saved, and no other way. And so you see in these words, something very similar to what

Paul is saying here, all things were created through him and for him. Back to Colossians 1.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

When we talk about Jesus coming to his own, his own did not receive him, but to those who did receive him, he gave the right to be called the children of God.

Jesus is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. He is the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

I won't go into firstborn from the dead right now. I'll wait until later to talk about that, because there's something beautiful in that as well.

So that's the teaser to keep you coming back for more of this Bible study. For in him, in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

Was pleased to dwell. Okay? All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Go back to something that we read earlier in Colossians 1 .9.

Paul praying for the Colossians that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord, fully pleasing to him. How would we walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord? We follow Christ. That's basically, as we understand this in context, what Paul is getting to when he says that in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

So the Colossians would have been clicking. They would have been putting these things together. Oh, okay, I get it. So if we're going to be fully pleasing to the

Lord, we need to walk in the way of Christ. Through Christ to reconcile to God all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Something else that we'll talk about later as well. So we have Jesus being presented to the

Colossians as wisdom personified. He is the image of the invisible

God. Can you see wisdom? Have you ever seen it before? Have you ever grasped it with your hand?

Have you ever perceived it with your senses? Wisdom is invisible. How do we have it?

How do we acquire it? We get it through Jesus Christ. And Christ being the image of the invisible

God is everything that we can know about God. Everything that we can know about wisdom is in Christ Jesus.

Because as we will read later on in Colossians 2, that in Christ is hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That's Colossians 2, 1. In whom are hidden? Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So in Proverbs 1, when Solomon is instructing his son to get wisdom and get insight, how do we follow those instructions?

By following the Lord. When we look at Christ, when we learn about Christ, and when we obey what he has commanded of us, we are unlocking that chest in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

God has given it to us, his people, through his word. Read it and know the truth.

There was a time in my life where I tried to make the Bible work for me. I would manipulate the words and twist the scriptures to something that would apply to me, to something that would benefit me and make me feel good about life.

Believing something that the scriptures did not actually say. And I was unwise.

I had the knowledge, but not the wisdom, to know how to properly apply it. We get wisdom from God.

If you ask, it will be given to you. God is so generous with wisdom that he will give it to all who ask him.

James 1, verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach.

And it will be given to him. Jesus said, you do not have because you did not ask for it.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Ask the Lord for wisdom and he will give it to you. But if we're left to our own devices, see in James 1, he doesn't just say that we need to be left to praying to God for wisdom and then he will give us understanding because later on in James 1 he talks about knowing what the word says and obeying it.

So we don't simply come about wisdom by praying and asking for it. We also come about our understanding by applying the word of God, by reading it and obeying what it says.

That is important also. So these things go together. Coming to the scriptures and being filled up with knowledge, praying to the

Lord for the wisdom to apply that knowledge as we have read it. So let's do that.

Make that a regular practice in your Christian walk. God, as we come to the conclusion of this study now,

I pray that you give us the wisdom we need to be able to apply these things to live in a way that is pleasing to you.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Jesus, who is the image of the God that we worship.

Amen. It's become a pulpit cliche to preach that God hates the sin but loves the sinner.

Well, hold on to your seats because that's not in the Bible. On the contrary, scripture says that God hates sinners.

What? Psalm 5 -5, God hates all evildoers. Proverbs 6 -19, God hates those who cause division. Jeremiah 12 -8,

God hates his own rebellious people. Romans 9 -13, God hates Esau. In fact, 14 times in the first 50 psalms alone do we read about God hating those who do evil.

Oh, and you'll love this one. The Lord hates the very statement, God hates the sin but loves the sinner. In Malachi 2 -17, it says you have wearied the

Lord with your words. But you say, how have we wearied him? By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

Lord and he delights in them. God does not merely hate sin, he hates those who do sin.

And that's what we read about when we understand the text. All right, all right, get out of here. Fortunately for us, that's not the end of the story.

Because God does indeed love us, he did not leave us in our sin. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, as an atoning sacrifice dying on the cross in our place.

The wrath that we deserve for our wickedness was poured out on Christ instead. Romans 5 -8 -9 says,

God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Now when God looks at us, he sees not our sin, but the righteousness of Christ, all those who follow him.

How is it that God can both hate the sinner and love us too? The answer is the cross.

The beauty of which we read about when we understand the text. This question comes from Colton in Washington.

He writes in and says, Dear Watts, Thank you so much for your video on hate the sin, love the sinner.

That's one that I've heard all over the church from casual conversation to Bible study to even coming from the pastor in the pulpit.

My question has to do with how we handle that statement when we hear it. I don't want to be whipping out my iPhone and having someone watch a what video every time they say something corny like hate the sin, love the sinner.

What's the best way to go about responding to such cliches?

Wow, Colton. I mean, that's a great question. I really appreciate you asking that. Here is my answer.

How do we go about responding to such cliches or such unbiblical statements when people make them?

Here is how we respond to them with grace. There is a time and a place, a time and a season.

All right, you know it. If you know that passage from Ecclesiastes, there's a time and a place for everything.

There's a time and a place to correct those kinds of things. And there's a time and a place not to, when maybe it just doesn't need to be said and you can let it go.

I think sometimes that we can become so puffed up with knowledge, as Paul talks about with the

Corinthians, that we become kind of a jerk about it. And when we don't have wisdom in the proper way and knowing how to exercise that, we feel like when we have the knowledge, we just need to impose it on everybody else, no matter what.

And I'm just going to beat you in the head with it until you finally get it. And there's no grace in that. It's that puffed up sense of knowledge.

It's not that proper godly exercise of wisdom. So when it comes to correcting people when they make cliche statements like that, we need to do it with grace.

I'll tell you that hate the sin, love the sinner, is not heresy. It's not a heretical statement.

It's not something that would cause a person to go to hell because they believed in such a thing. So we need to have a kind of a patience with this.

I'll tell you a story of something that happened with me recently. I don't mean to puff myself up as the hero here.

That's not the point because I've gone through. I've traveled a long road to get to this point.

But anyway, there was a woman recently that I was talking with about prayer. She had this is not a member of my congregation.

I'm not talking about somebody in my church, but she was burdened with a desire to want to start a prayer group.

And when she was talking with me about starting a prayer group, she's talking about different things about prayer. And she made the statement where two or more are gathered there.

Jesus is in the midst of them, which is a statement that she's taking out of context. That has to do with church discipline, the way that it's stated in Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 20.

But that really wasn't the time and the place to correct her on that. There would probably be another time where I might be able to show her more in context what that statement truly means.

But that really wasn't the time and place. I think in the moment that we were in to have interrupted her and told her, hey,

I think you should reconsider how you're using that verse. I think that it really would have kind of derailed the discussion as we were having it in the direction that we were going.

I kind of would have come across as a jerk, as a know -it -all, of saying, hey, I know better than you about the way you're using that statement, and so you need to listen to me.

So when it comes to correcting people in that way, we need to do it with grace. It's a circumstantial thing.

It's going to differ from circumstance to circumstance. So, Colton, let me pray for you. God, I pray that you would give

Colton the wisdom to know how to answer each person in the right way.

Give him insight. Give him discernment. Help him to build up with love instead of being puffed up with knowledge, as we all need to be.

And we desire this in Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

Text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book 40 of the Most Popular Bible Verses and What They Really Mean, available in paperback or for your

Kindle. He's also authored a Bible study through the book of 1 Corinthians. Both books can be found at our website at www .tt

.com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.